ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This study attempts to overcome past failings in the analysis of post-apartheid
South Africa's foreign policy. In contrast to "explanations" offered by most
previous analyses, this work demonstrates that the behaviour exhibited by
Pretoria is not immutable or simply subject to the global "realities", but is
derivative of the specific historic conjuncture of forces that joined together
during the transition from apartheid, and which remain open-ended. The
changes in the African National Congress' economic and political policies during
the transition period are seen as the key to any attempt to understand Pretoria's
post-1994 foreign policy behaviour. This is intimately connected to the
structural changes in the international political economy and the change in the
balance of international class forces brought about by the neo-liberal counter
revolution.
Deploying a theoretical framework derivative of the work of the Italian
Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, this study situates South Africa's foreign policy in a
world where the ideology of neo-liberalism has achieved hegemonic status
amongst the transnational elite class - fractions of national elites, representing
and reflecting the interests of money capital. Such a hegemonic project informs
the beliefs of the Government of National Unity and the subsequent foreign
policy activities postured by Pretoria. This study attempts to understand how
and why the ANCacceded to the dominant discourse of neo-liberalism and why
this must be contextualised within the structural constraints brought to bear
upon the GNUin an increasingly globalised world.
This accession to neo-liberal beliefs has gIVen nse to contradictions
within the domestic polity between contending class fractions and within the
ANC'sown ranks. This has provoked a fundamental tension in Pretoria's overall
foreign policy, where on the one hand South Africa accepts the fundamental
normative world order, whilst on the other pushes various reformist initiatives
which seek to re-negotiate Pretoria's standing within this framework.
Specifically, South Africa's behaviour in multilateral organisations has been
marked by a tactical middlepowermanship role, essentially problem-solving, which seeks to smooth out the international system so that the ongoing world
order may function as "efficiently" as possible. Such behaviour has been
qualitatively different from the activist role that was expected from an ANC-led
administration.
Indeed, the activism exhibited by South Africa has been largely centred
around the promotion of the liberalisation of markets and free trade, albeit
tempered by an awareness of the need to reconcile its acceptance of the
hegemonic order, with that of the appeals of a historically important fraction of
its support constituency: the Left and labour. Attempts to reconcile these two
positions, of promoting "free" trade whilst at the same time demanding "fair"
trade for example, mirror the broader contradictions that have been evident in
South African foreign policy. They reflect the historic compromise that saw the
ANCcome to administrative power, and also the desire by the government to
balance its neo-liberal credentials with certain reformist convictions. This has
been most evident in Pretoria's behaviour in multilateral organisations.
SLXmultilateral initiatives, and Pretoria's role within each, are examined:
the World Trade Organisation, the Cairns Group, the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth,
and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Implications for future South African
foreign policy are drawn out, and a critical eye cast on whether such roles
played out by Pretoria are immutable, or subject to change.